MERGERS
MCI-Sprint Is No Big Deal (WSJ)
FCC Set to Ease AT&T's Path on MediaOne Deal (WSJ)
INTERNET
States Just Won't Give Up on Online Pornography Laws (CyberTimes)
"Self-Destruct" Email Offers Virtual Privacy(USA)
RADIO
WorldSpace Ready For Radio Service(WP)
MERGERS
MCI-SPRINT IS NO BIG DEAL
Issue: Merger
[Op-Ed] "A merged MCI WorldCom and Sprint represents the best hope for a
strong and effective alternative to the mega-Bells and emerging AT&T cable
monopoly," says Bernard J. Ebbers, president and chief executive officer of
MCIWorldcom. According to Ebbers, the regional Bells and AT&T have the
"potential to establish telecom hegemony." AT&T, which will control 60% of
U.S. cable lines once its acquisition of MediaOne is approved, is growing
into a virtual cable monopoly. Consumers who wish to have broadband
services over cable will have do it on AT&T terms, or not at all. The
Bells, already major wireless providers, have consolidated local
operations and are moving toward becoming one-stop providers of a wide
range of voice and data services. Ebbers contends that a WorldCom Sprint
deal will benefit consumers by providing strong competition to an emerging
"Bell-AT&T duopoly."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A18), AUTHOR: Bernard Ebbers, president and
chief executive officer of MCIWorldcom, Inc.]
(http://wsj.com/)
FCC SET TO EASE AT&T'S PATH ON MEDIAONE DEAL
Issue: Mergers/Cable
The FCC is expected to revise the rules limiting ownership of cable-TV
systems, easing AT&T's acquisition of MediaOne Group. Currently the FCC
limits a company's total cable subscribers to 30% of all U.S. cable TV
households. The AT&T-MediaOne deal would result in a company with half of
all cable households. Through three rule changes, the FCC is expected to
effectively change its cable-TV ownership limits. It is expected that the
FCC will broaden the definition of the cable-TV market to include categories
such as satellite-TV subscribers; revamp its method of determining whether a
company's minority interest in a cable system qualifies it as an
attributable partner for the quota; and make wording changes to exempt
Internet and non-video cable-service subscribers from being counted towards
the 30% cap. Even with these changes AT&T will need to restructure the cable
systems to meet cable-ownership rules.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B2), AUTHOR: Kathy Chen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB939339024601298648.htm)
INTERNET
STATES JUST WON'T GIVE UP ON ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY LAWS
Issue: Internet Regulation
In the last three years states have four times passed laws designed to
restrict the online distribution of material deemed "harmful to minors."
Three of those laws have been struck down in Federal court on Constitutional
grounds. Given this unsuccessful track record, why do state legislators keep
on passing such laws? The sponsor of such a law in Virginia sums it up: "The
standard -- harmful to minors -- has been upheld. You can't sell Hustler
magazine to kids. But before my statute, you could have sold an electronic
file version of Hustler with all the pictures. Why should the format of this
thing make a difference?" The Virginia law makes it illegal for businesses
to engage in the "knowing" display to minors of sexually explicit
"electronic files or messages" deemed "harmful to juveniles." Opponents and
the courts have said the state laws interfere with the federal government's
right to regulate interstate trade, in part because they are an attempt to
impose state law on a national and global network. Internet publishers have
no way of knowing for sure who is viewing their content so, those who wanted
to comply with the law would need to self-censor material that may be
explicit or controversial but that adults have a right to view under the
First Amendment.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Pamela Mendels (mendels( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/cyber/cyberlaw/08law.html)
"SELF-DESTRUCT" EMAIL OFFERS VIRTUAL PRIVACY
Issue: Privacy
Many email users have been burned when their emailed words come back to
haunt them. As much as 85% of the evidence in the Iran-contra hearings came
from restored e-mail. Similarly the US government has used internal messages
as evidence in its antitrust case against Microsoft. Disappearing
Incorporated, a small start-up firm in San Francisco, has devised a product
to take the longevity out of your email -- self destructing e-mail. Currently,
even if both sender and recipient delete a message, copies remain on
computers they can't access. When sending a message to a friend, a small
add-on filter to your e-mail program goes out across the Net and notifies
the Disappearing Inc. site after you hit the send key. The site assigns a
sent message an identifying number and gives the sender a software
"key" with which to scramble it. When the receiver of the email opens the
message, the same key from Disappearing Inc. unscrambles it. The email will
self-destruct based on the amount of time the key is to exist, which could
range from seconds to decades. When time is up, the key is deleted from
Disappearing Inc. Disappearing Inc.'s system is due early next year. It's
legal according to Disappearing co-founder Dave Marvit, who says. "If the feds
are knocking on your door and you start shredding, that's destruction of
evidence. But it's accepted business practice to regularly destroy
documents."
[SOURCE:USA Today, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Weise]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crg441.htm)
RADIO
WORLDSPACE READY FOR RADIO SERVICE
Issue: Radio
WorldSpace Management Corporation., a District-based broadcasting company,
will begin satellite radio service to Africa and the Mediterranean region on
Oct. 19, after almost a decade of development. The company will transmit
news, entertainment and educational broadcasts from South Africa, Kenya,
Egypt and other nations in the region along with programming from CNN,
Bloomberg and other providers. The braodcasts will be transmitted via the
company's satellite to 30,000 customers who have purchased specially
designed digital radios. These radios will eventually be able to transfer
data and multimedia signals to personal computers. The company plans to
deploy three satellites to broadcast to underdeveloped nations around the
world.
[SOURCE:Washington Post, AUTHOR: Peter Behr]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/08/045l-100899-idx.html)
--------------------------------------------------------------
...and we are outta here. Enjoy the (long) weekend -- we'll see you on Tuesday.